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09 July 2021 / David Renton
Issue: 7940 / Categories: Features , Housing , Human rights
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The threat of eviction & life on the brink

52439
David Renton reports on the real-world realities for those left on the verge of eviction

Recently, I represented Ms Silver, a woman in her mid-fifties who had lived in her home for 20 years. She was an agency nurse, and her blue scrubs poked out from beneath a black waterproof coat.

In 2015, Ms Silver suffered a series of delays in renewing her registration as a nurse. The body that handles registrations needed her employers to write to confirm that she worked for them. But her trust managers were always too busy to send the letter. Days became weeks, and in the end Ms Silver went six months without registration. She tried to keep up with her rent, and the benefits advisers told her to declare herself self-employed. She tried to establish an online business selling jewellery, but that work brought hardly any money in. Eventually, the housing association took her to court and obtained a suspended possession order.

A suspended possession order leaves you stuck,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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